High Court Strikes Down Most of Arizona Immigration Law

Posted on Jun 25, 2012

Arizona’s controversial immigration law is largely no more. The Supreme Court on Monday ruled mostly in favor of the U.S. government when it struck down the bulk of the state’s notorious immigration law. However, the court did uphold a key provision of the Arizona law that requires officers to check the immigration status of people they stop or arrest if they have “reasonable suspicion” that the person is in the country illegally.

The vote on Arizona v. the United States was 5 to 3. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case.

The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein tweeted that since Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the Arizona immigration decision, the consensus is that Chief Justice John Roberts will author the landmark ruling on President Obama’s health care law. That eagerly anticipated ruling should come down sometime this week—possibly on Thursday, the last day the court will be issuing opinions for this term.

The Supreme Court has issued 5-3 decision in favor of U.S. government, with Justice Kennedy saying that the government has significant power to regulate immigration and while Arizona may have signifacnt frustrations they may not have policies that undermine federal law.

This is a win for the federal government and a loss for Arizona.

The majority concluded the federal government had the power to block SB1070, which would have given local law enforcement the power to detain and question the immigration status of those believed to be in the country illegally. The Obama administration had argued immigration matters were strictly a federal function.